Diff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom, which aired on NBC from November 3, 1978, to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985, to March 7, 1986. The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and Willis Jackson, respectively, who are two boys from Harlem taken in by a wealthy Park Avenue businessman and his daughter. Phillip Drummond (Conrad Bain) is a widower for whom their deceased mother previously worked; his daughter, Kimberly, is played by Dana Plato. During the first season and the first half of the second season, Charlotte Rae also starred, as Mrs. Edna Garrett, the Drummonds' first housekeeper, who ultimately spun off into her own sitcom, The Facts of Life, as a housemother at the fictional Eastland School. The second housekeeper, Adelaide Brubaker, was played by Nedra Volz. The third housekeeper, Pearl Gallagher, was played by Mary Jo Catlett, first appearing as a recurring character, later becoming a main cast member.
The series made stars of Coleman, Bridges, and Plato and became known for the "very special episodes", in which serious issues such as racism, illegal drug use, alcoholism, hitchhiking, kidnapping, and child sexual abuse were dramatically explored.
History
Diff'rent Strokes was initially devised to serve as a vehicle for both Conrad Bain and Gary Coleman. Bain had recently finished a six-year run co-starring as Dr. Arthur Harmon on the hugely successful Maude. When that series ended production following star Beatrice Arthur's decision to leave the show in the spring 1978, Tandem Productions producer Norman Lear was keen to find a suitable sitcom for Bain to star in. Ten-year-old Coleman, meanwhile, had caught producers' attention after appearing in a number of commercials and TV guest roles, and the previous year had starred in three pilot episodes by Lear that attempted to revive the Little Rascals film series of the 1920-40s. The pilots did not sell although they were later edited into a television film for some markets. Lear saw immense potential in Coleman and was determined to find him a suitable sitcom, and it was decided that Bain and Coleman would make a good, if unusual, pairing for the project.
With Bain himself having considerable input into the options available and directions they took, producers considered a number of settings and formats, including one in which Bain was a gumshoe, with Coleman as his young associate-cum-informant. The fictional detective Bulldog Drummond served as inspiration for what would have been Bain's character, and although this concept was ultimately dropped, the surname "Drummond" was retained to become the surname of Bain's character in Diff'rent Strokes.
Several such concepts were considered before a rough outline for the eventual series—in which Bain plays a wealthy businessman left to take care of his late housekeeper's son, the orphaned Coleman—was settled upon and given the working title 45 Minutes from Harlem (even though Harlem is only ten to fifteen minutes away from the Upper East Side by subway or taxi). An alternate version of the basic scenario had a slightly harder-nosed Bain as a wealthy estate developer who finds that he can only purchase a potentially lucrative Harlem housing block for redevelopment if he also takes custody of the orphan, Coleman, who lives there; this version was nixed in favor of the former.
NBC showed immediate interest and felt the format had potential; at their request the pitch was developed, with Coleman's character, Arnold, gaining an older brother, producers feeling Coleman would benefit from the addition of a second, slightly older child to interact with, and who could add a further dynamic to storylines. Producers immediately decided child actor Todd Bridges should play the older brother; he had appeared in a number of commercials and guest roles. The producers were also impressed by Bridges’ stint on the sitcom Fish, which had also been cancelled earlier in 1978. Bridges was offered the role without needing an audition. The pitch meeting to NBC took place on Friday May 9, 1978, with NBC immediately ordering an optional 26 episodes.
